In the prior art, a wide variety of shapes have been used to harness the power of air. See, for example, the schematic prior art drawings shown in FIGS. 1A-1D. These shapes are designed primarily to act in response to air flowing in the direction of the arrow identified as "air flow" in FIGS. 1-3, impacting upon the angle of attack at which the airfoil blade is mounted, and causing the blade to lift. In a typical airplane wing (airfoil), for example, the angle of attack is such that a negative pressure is created above the wing (blade or airfoil) and the wing rises as the air flows across it.
In my prior art U.S. Pat. No. 4,655,122, I disclosed an improved aerodynamic shape which comprised essentially a planar face portion and leading and trailing edges associated with opposing ends of the face portion in a pan-shaped enclosure shown more particularly in the detailed cross section of FIG. 4 of that patent. This blade was shown in use in an air damper where one or more blades were pivoted for rotation within a frame. In that environment, the blades provided an increased lift when forced to open by escaping air from a structure, and thus this permitted the blades to be constructed of a relatively heavy gauge material without compromising damper efficiency. The air flow patterns and dimensions are also disclosed in detail.
It became apparent to me that the preferred blade structure had characteristics which were not known in the prior art.